For me Nico overtaking Max and holding off Seb at the end despite being under what must have been enormous pressure makes him my DotD. Honourable mentions to Seb and Max for both turning what looked like a 2nd rate strategy into team-mate-beating performances.

Makes you question, though - the "alternative" strategy proved better than the planned one for two different teams today!

Vettel, Rosberg and Verstappen for my vote. Great of Nico to hold off that pressure and make no errors espe near the end. Bad of Lewis to back him up. Unsporting, and imagine the radio if Nico had done this to HIMSELF? I thought more of Lewis. Anyone doubt Vettel's ability after this? And Verstappen is going to be great. Mercedes feared him before the grid was set, and not without reason! Tells a lot. He has fire and ability in spades.

Hard to judge. Lewis' deliberately slow driving made it such a bizarre race. I don't think Vettel's or Verstappen's strategies would have worked out quite so well if the pace at the front had been faster. I guess I'll pick Rosberg for staying cool under immense pressure and for that superb pass on Verstappen.

_________________“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”― Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Lewis by a wide margin Nico second for not having a nose bleed and bringing it home

Anyone who voted

Vettel - strategy only.worked due to Lewis backing up - let's just remember he was on us tyres as well

Verstappen - just watch the start - did well to stay ahead of Nico for some laps but that's it

Could equally argue: anyone voting Lewis - what did he do that was that special? Drove slowly in the twisty bits where it was difficult to overtake and floored it on the straights so Nico couldn't get by. How is that particularly noteworthy?

As for Vettel's strategy. It may well have only worked due to Lewis backing people up, but drivers can only work with what they've got. And Max had a dubious start, but there again, to come from last to 4th was a pretty strong comeback.

I've said this on other threads, but I am still amazed that so many people are voting for Verstappen. He could have done far better than he did. He blew his opportunity of finishing at leased one or 2 places higher than he did. That spin at the beginning was clumsy and easily avoidable. Yes he did recover from it very well but people seem to think that he's had a better race because he's recovered from so far down quickly. Wouldn't it have been FAR better if he hadn't had that spin at all? Then he will have quite easily been further ahead. I would certainly voted him as one of the drivers of the day if it wasn't for that mistake. He very nearly knocked out a Force India as well as nearly crashing into the wall himself. People are also saying that is is so amazing how he got back up near the top so fast. Isn't that sort of obvious? He is in what is pretty much the 2nd best car, and he was helped by the fact that half of the drivers he overtook were pitting at the time he went past. Nothing hard about getting past them. And lots of the others were in much worse cars. He certainly still did a good job at climbing back up and beating his team mate but it will have been far more impressive if he just didn't make that mistake. Ricciardo would probably have done just as well or better if he was on the same strategy as he started 3rd not 6th and didn't have a near crash spin at the start. But as others pointed out, it was a bit surprising that Ricciardo couldn't get past Verstappen near the end. But then I also hear some others say that Verstappen may have been given the better strategy to get him ahead of Ricciardo to give him his best chance of getting 4th in the championship. I also feel Ricciardo also may have been told to allow Verstappen to pull ahead. Riciardo had a cleaner race than verstappen so I really do feel that he is more deserving to be one of the drivers of the day than his team mate.

I went for Vettel and Rosberg. Vettel had an incredible last stint on his tyres and did some impressive overtakes. Rosberg had an extremely good overtake on Verstappen and dealt incredibly well with the pressure Hamilton put on him near the end. He may have been able to overtake him but I think he will have thought the risk was too big as if there happened to be anything go wrong, it would cost him the championship. But then he had to cope with the pressure of what was happening behind him too. That was managed incredibly well those last few laps.

I also think that Hamilton has been extremely over voted this race. He went really slow purposely holding up Rosberg other than on the straits where he flawed it. If he did that here, then Rosberg shouldn't have allowed Hamilton past in Monaco when he was going slow. If Rosberg ignored team orders in Monaco, I'm sure some people will have kicked up a fuss back then if that happened. Hamilton got given team orders this race and he completely ignored them. And that was several times! Very poor from Hamilton there. People really don't seem to like it if Rosberg just asks the team for advice even if it is within the rules. Well even though Hamilton won the race, it was not an impressive looking drive at all. Didn't do the max he could, did pretty much no impressive overtakes and ignored team orders. Not a good race at all IMO.

Lewis by a wide margin Nico second for not having a nose bleed and bringing it home

Anyone who voted

Vettel - strategy only.worked due to Lewis backing up - let's just remember he was on us tyres as well

Verstappen - just watch the start - did well to stay ahead of Nico for some laps but that's it

Could equally argue: anyone voting Lewis - what did he do that was that special? Drove slowly in the twisty bits where it was difficult to overtake and floored it on the straights so Nico couldn't get by. How is that particularly noteworthy?

As for Vettel's strategy. It may well have only worked due to Lewis backing people up, but drivers can only work with what they've got. And Max had a dubious start, but there again, to come from last to 4th was a pretty strong comeback.

The impressive part about Lewis' hold up job and I assume this was intentional was that he was able to hold up Rosberg by anywhere between 0.5-0.8 per lap but also not let him get DRS on him. I wouldn't have thought that was possible, it shows how sensitive that Mercedes is in dirty air. Nico was about 0.3-0.4 behind Lewis in the final sector on a lot of laps but it was up over a second by the DRS line.

That highlights to me more than ever why we have seen first Mercedes into turn 1 win the race though all of 2015 and 2016

Lewis by a wide margin Nico second for not having a nose bleed and bringing it home

Anyone who voted

Vettel - strategy only.worked due to Lewis backing up - let's just remember he was on us tyres as well

Verstappen - just watch the start - did well to stay ahead of Nico for some laps but that's it

Could equally argue: anyone voting Lewis - what did he do that was that special? Drove slowly in the twisty bits where it was difficult to overtake and floored it on the straights so Nico couldn't get by. How is that particularly noteworthy?

As for Vettel's strategy. It may well have only worked due to Lewis backing people up, but drivers can only work with what they've got. And Max had a dubious start, but there again, to come from last to 4th was a pretty strong comeback.

The impressive part about Lewis' hold up job and I assume this was intentional was that he was able to hold up Rosberg by anywhere between 0.5-0.8 per lap but also not let him get DRS on him. I wouldn't have thought that was possible, it shows how sensitive that Mercedes is in dirty air. Nico was about 0.3-0.4 behind Lewis in the final sector on a lot of laps but it was up over a second by the DRS line.

That highlights to me more than ever why we have seen first Mercedes into turn 1 win the race though all of 2015 and 2016

But is that impressive, though, if the Merc is so sensitive?

Nico was complaining on the radio that Lewis was slow most of the lap but opened the throttle in S1 so he couldn't get close. Given the nature of the Abu Dhabi track I'm not sure that's such an impressive feat.

Lewis by a wide margin Nico second for not having a nose bleed and bringing it home

Anyone who voted

Vettel - strategy only.worked due to Lewis backing up - let's just remember he was on us tyres as well

Verstappen - just watch the start - did well to stay ahead of Nico for some laps but that's it

Could equally argue: anyone voting Lewis - what did he do that was that special? Drove slowly in the twisty bits where it was difficult to overtake and floored it on the straights so Nico couldn't get by. How is that particularly noteworthy?

As for Vettel's strategy. It may well have only worked due to Lewis backing people up, but drivers can only work with what they've got. And Max had a dubious start, but there again, to come from last to 4th was a pretty strong comeback.

As you say vettel could only work with what he had, the same goes for Hamilton. I don't see vettel a last stint as spectacular, has everyone forgot he was essentially in a qualifying car barely any fuel left and on the fastest tyre. Now! If he had passed rosberg at least and even Hamilton that would have been spectacular

I commend Hamilton for telling paddy to button it, and the skill in which to pull that off over so many laps.

2.He was smart enough to wait until after the last pit stop to start the slowdown so merc couldn't mess with his strategy.

3. He exposed the merc B.S. that were going to let them race.

4.Made a race that would have been crushingly boring into one that will be talked about for years.

5. Showed how you can drive slow and still keep all those supposedly fast drivers behind him. Takes a lot more skill than most deskjockies on here could understand.

6. Despite what any of the other drivers say if they were in his position they would do exactly the same thing. If they didn't they don't belong on F1 aren't intelligent enough to think of a way to win.

For you verstap fans that voted for him even though he had one of his worse races shows why F1 is struggling. He is one of the most talented drivers in F1 but this weekend was not one i am sure he would not be satisfied with. screwed up qualifying, bad start, spun in first corner, passed by rosberg, vettel and was only in his position because of pit strategy and hamilton slowing the pace. Shows what a farce most of these polls are.

When paddy said this is a exciting championship we have created i don't think he imagined just how exciting it was going to get.

I voted for Hamilton as he was in control of the race. I think he did the backing up far too much for long time. But in the end that is what made race interesting and brought Ferrari in with US. So without Hamilton tactics it could have been a dull race lol

I've said this on other threads, but I am still amazed that so many people are voting for Verstappen. He could have done far better than he did. He blew his opportunity of finishing at leased one or 2 places higher than he did. That spin at the beginning was clumsy and easily avoidable. Yes he did recover from it very well but people seem to think that he's had a better race because he's recovered from so far down quickly. Wouldn't it have been FAR better if he hadn't had that spin at all? Then he will have quite easily been further ahead.

He only did the alternative strategy because he was in the position he was. If he had had a normal start he would have done the normal strategy also, and probably finished behind his teammate.

Oh, and I voted Vettel, Hamilton and Verstappen. Vettel is obvious, Hamilton for a great drive which he directed from start to finish and executed perfectly (just didn't work out), Verstappen for making lemonade out of lemons by some great overtakes and great tyre management.

I thought this was Driver of the Day, not Controversy of the Day. What on earth does being talked about have to do with being best driver?

spiritone wrote:

2.He was smart enough to wait until after the last pit stop to start the slowdown so merc couldn't mess with his strategy.

He started way earlier than that. He just increased it afterwards. Basic common sense after the team had warned him pre-race they would favour Nico if they thought Lewis was putting him in danger.

spiritone wrote:

3. He exposed the merc B.S. that were going to let them race.

He did nothing of the sort. Merc just applied the same rules they have to every race they have run. Hint: it's not Lewis' own team.

spiritone wrote:

4.Made a race that would have been crushingly boring into one that will be talked about for years.

So I suppose Max should be applauded for nearly causing an accident with Kimi earlier in the season, because that's been talked about a lot.Strange logic

spiritone wrote:

5. Showed how you can drive slow and still keep all those supposedly fast drivers behind him. Takes a lot more skill than most deskjockies on here could understand.

That would make Trulli the G.O.A.T, then? Some "desk jockeys" understand that track characteristics play a certain part. Alonso lost out on the title in 2010 because he couldn't get past Petrov here. I wonder how many people think Petrov is a genius driver with more skill than Alonso. Desk jockeys, indeed.

spiritone wrote:

6. Despite what any of the other drivers say if they were in his position they would do exactly the same thing. If they didn't they don't belong on F1 aren't intelligent enough to think of a way to win.

It's possible you may be right about the first. Completely wrong about the second, though

spiritone wrote:

For you verstap fans that voted for him even though he had one of his worse races shows why F1 is struggling. He is one of the most talented drivers in F1 but this weekend was not one i am sure he would not be satisfied with. screwed up qualifying, bad start, spun in first corner, passed by rosberg, vettel and was only in his position because of pit strategy and hamilton slowing the pace. Shows what a farce most of these polls are.

I suspect "farce" for you is any time someone didn't vote Hamilton. Max spun, it's true, but after that he had a great drive to bring himself back into contention and finish ahead of Dan and Kimi. His very good tyre management in the first stint, despite having to carve his way through the field, was noteworthy. But hey, clearly not as good as simply driving slow in the twisty bits and flooring it in the fastest car on the straights.

spiritone wrote:

When paddy said this is a exciting championship we have created i don't think he imagined just how exciting it was going to get.

I suspect many would disagree with you on that one. As championships go it hasn't exactly been edge of the seat for me, but I can understand it might be if you're heavily invested in Lewis or Nico

I've said this on other threads, but I am still amazed that so many people are voting for Verstappen. He could have done far better than he did. He blew his opportunity of finishing at leased one or 2 places higher than he did. That spin at the beginning was clumsy and easily avoidable. Yes he did recover from it very well but people seem to think that he's had a better race because he's recovered from so far down quickly. Wouldn't it have been FAR better if he hadn't had that spin at all? Then he will have quite easily been further ahead.

He only did the alternative strategy because he was in the position he was. If he had had a normal start he would have done the normal strategy also, and probably finished behind his teammate.

I assume Red Bull didn't know that that strategy would help as much as it did then. Surely if they knew it would be better, they would have done it to Ricciardo too. While Verstappen did recover from it very well, it would have been so much better if he didn't make that error. That is why it really surprises me how he had so many votes. His team mate had a much cleaner race and was behind only because of his strategy or his team telling him to allow Verstappen through to give him his best chance to get 4th in the championship. That is what I feel may have been the reason why Ricciardo didn't overtake him near the end.

I've said this on other threads, but I am still amazed that so many people are voting for Verstappen. He could have done far better than he did. He blew his opportunity of finishing at leased one or 2 places higher than he did. That spin at the beginning was clumsy and easily avoidable. Yes he did recover from it very well but people seem to think that he's had a better race because he's recovered from so far down quickly. Wouldn't it have been FAR better if he hadn't had that spin at all? Then he will have quite easily been further ahead.

He only did the alternative strategy because he was in the position he was. If he had had a normal start he would have done the normal strategy also, and probably finished behind his teammate.

I assume Red Bull didn't know that that strategy would help as much as it did then. Surely if they knew it would be better, they would have done it to Ricciardo too.

You're right, they didn't know. But in saying that this invalidates your earlier notion that he could have finished at least 2 places higher. He couldn't have because they didn't know it would be the better strategy so he wouldn't have been put on it.

Basically, his error proved to be beneficial.

Quote:

While Verstappen did recover from it very well, it would have been so much better if he didn't make that error. That is why it really surprises me how he had so many votes. His team mate had a much cleaner race and was behind only because of his strategy or his team telling him to allow Verstappen through to give him his best chance to get 4th in the championship. That is what I feel may have been the reason why Ricciardo didn't overtake him near the end.

When exactly did RBR order Ricciardo to let Verstappen pass? As far as I know that never happened?"Much" cleaner... apart from the one obvious mistake I don't think Verstappen had a scruffy race? Pretty decisive in his overtakes without problems?

And that's basically why. Once again he showed great overtaking skills even on a track where it isn't straightforward, once again he was the one challenging either one of the Mercs, and his tyre management was very good considering he'd had a spin on his first stint. It's not uncommon to see a driver get votes for a drive that was noticed. Ricciardo had a solid race but could not make an impact on the Mercs, could not overtake, lost a place in the end.

I've said this on other threads, but I am still amazed that so many people are voting for Verstappen. He could have done far better than he did. He blew his opportunity of finishing at leased one or 2 places higher than he did. That spin at the beginning was clumsy and easily avoidable. Yes he did recover from it very well but people seem to think that he's had a better race because he's recovered from so far down quickly. Wouldn't it have been FAR better if he hadn't had that spin at all? Then he will have quite easily been further ahead.

He only did the alternative strategy because he was in the position he was. If he had had a normal start he would have done the normal strategy also, and probably finished behind his teammate.

I assume Red Bull didn't know that that strategy would help as much as it did then. Surely if they knew it would be better, they would have done it to Ricciardo too.

You're right, they didn't know. But in saying that this invalidates your earlier notion that he could have finished at least 2 places higher. He couldn't have because they didn't know it would be the better strategy so he wouldn't have been put on it.

Basically, his error proved to be beneficial.

Quote:

While Verstappen did recover from it very well, it would have been so much better if he didn't make that error. That is why it really surprises me how he had so many votes. His team mate had a much cleaner race and was behind only because of his strategy or his team telling him to allow Verstappen through to give him his best chance to get 4th in the championship. That is what I feel may have been the reason why Ricciardo didn't overtake him near the end.

When exactly did RBR order Ricciardo to let Verstappen pass? As far as I know that never happened?"Much" cleaner... apart from the one obvious mistake I don't think Verstappen had a scruffy race? Pretty decisive in his overtakes without problems?

And that's basically why. Once again he showed great overtaking skills even on a track where it isn't straightforward, once again he was the one challenging either one of the Mercs, and his tyre management was very good considering he'd had a spin on his first stint. It's not uncommon to see a driver get votes for a drive that was noticed. Ricciardo had a solid race but could not make an impact on the Mercs, could not overtake, lost a place in the end.

I do have a different view. I did say in another post that I read that others thought similar to me that Ricciardo may have been told to allow Verstappen to stay in front. I don't know if this is true but it would make sense if it was as it would give Verstappen a better chance of being 4th in the drivers standings. And yes, although he did do a good job to get back to the front, he was in getting on for the best car and about half the drivers he went past on the way back up were pitting. That isn't impressive overtaking although he certainly did some. But that near crash spin nearly took out both a Force India and himself. His race will have been far more impressive if that didn't happen. One reason why I can't even consider him as a driver of the day. It was also only due to Hamilton really so I suppose he wouldn't have finished any higher if it wasn't for than even without his spin. But Hamilton did help Verstappen get the chance to fight with Rosberg.

I also couldn't vote for Ricciardo but I can't see how he isn't as deserving as Verstappen is. He also didn't make a big mistake as that start. If they had both been on the same strategy which as you say, they probably won't have been, I am pretty sure Ricciardo could have easily beaten him.

I've given my reasons why I don't think Verstappen is deserving to be voted as many times as he has been but many people obviously think different. We all have different opinions though. But it almost as if Verstappen's near miss makes his race better as he had more overtakes to do. In that case if drivers know their team will do a better strategy if they have a near miss spin, they all may as well try to do that! I just think that was a good enough reason why I couldn't vote for Verstappen as it was completely avoidable.

Edit, I'll add that if it was a spin that wasn't their own fault and they recover from that, that is different as they obviously couldn't help it that they fell behind. An example of this was with Ericsson in Mexico. He had a fair bit of contact as well as damage on the first lap and fell to the back. He pitted on first lap and even in the worst car with a bit of damage, he managed to finish in 11th when there was only one retirement in the race. If Verstappen had been spun by someone else and it wasn't his fault in the slightest, my view on his votes would chance completely.

I'm not questioning your view - I understand it and respect it. I only responded to your initial post because I don't agree with your initial assertion that he would have finished higher up by not spinning.

I'm not questioning your view - I understand it and respect it. I only responded to your initial post because I don't agree with your initial assertion that he would have finished higher up by not spinning.

His finishing position also had nothing to do with Hamilton's antics.

For the rest I completely understand your view.

Ah ok.

I would have thought that if they had both done 2 stops though, that would have meant Ricciardo could easily have finished ahead. Another one of my points was that many people seem to vote Verstappen just because he beats Ricciardo. This time and several others, it has been due to the strategy Verstappen is using that has helped him beat his team mate, this time especially. But yes, I suppose he did have plenty of good moments. But his spin at the start was sort of lucky if it automatically put him on a better strategy that resulted in him being pretty much back level with his team mate who even started 3 places ahead.